Hi Paul,
I've seen lots of good eq6 images as well, and I'm sure the majority of eq6's are ok - especially for imaging at under 1 meter fl. Anything over this and there are numerous issues. There is a well known 10.2 second error in tracking that if you have it bad causes a 2 arc second jump every 10.2 seconds (of course!), Periodic error correction that will never fully work because it uses wierd gear ratios (motor to worm gear 3.916666), intermediate gears that are out of round and a tracking system that relies on microstepping for smooth tracking (9.2 arc sec per full step!!!!!). After having one of the lousy ones and doing everything possible to fix it (would you believe I can strip one and put it back together in under a half an hour I've done it so many times!), I wouldn't risk more money on anything Synta in the future unless I had the benefit of "if you are not happy return for full refund guarantee" like they do in the US.
I have decided to go smaller and higher quality and ordered a Vixen GPD2 that will be fitted with a dc motor drive. After some correspondence with Vixen users, I'm pretty sure this will work fine with the VC200l. Once that is up and running I'll start saving for one of the real mounts...Tak, AP, MI etc, might take a couple of years, but hey as one enters middle age , one gets more patient - as well as time going a hell of a lot faster!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Got to say I see more stunning images coming from EQ6 models than not. I went to the skywatcher factory in China last year where all these mounts are made. Every thing looked pretty good with clean rooms to boot.
Having said that your next port of call is either the CGE, Vixen or Losmandy. For my money the Losmandy carries a better name.
However, if you are serious about staying in the imaging game. Start saving for a 10k+ mount. Once you have the mount you will not likely ever have cause for real complaint. This is the most critical part of your imaging system. The mount is every thing in the equation.
|